Robin My recent extracurricular reading has focused on understanding more about the luxury industry. That includes the history and sociology of how we, as human beings, interact with and develop desires for luxury goods and experiences, and how large corporations like LVMH have fueled and monetized that desire through marketing, particularly to larger middle-class audiences in … Read more
Lately my deep learning focus has been on understanding artificial intelligence — not just how it works in terms of training data, random forests, etc., but its legal, ethics, and policy implications. Hence, I’m not terribly surprised a lawsuit’s been launched related to the use of artists’ work in training AI algorithms. In short, a … Read more
Over the past year I’ve been thinking more about artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact it is having on our society. AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries. There are significant implications for not only in the tech sector, but across our economy. All its potential ramifications are too much to cover in a … Read more
Sunday October 16, 2022 Yesterday I received the covid-19 bivalent vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech. The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has approved two updated bivalent boosters — the Pfizer and Moderna variants. Bivalent boosters are supposed to shield against the original covid-19 virus as well as the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants. I thought … Read more
September 26, 2022 At my law firm, we generally keep a close eye on commercial real estate markets because working with investors and developers represents a significant portion of our activities. When covid-19 hit, I saw it as accelerating the trend towards distributed workforces and remote work. Particularly in larger urban areas subject to high … Read more
September 25, 2022 Today’s NY Times included a good article on the demise of the “starter home” in the United States. Whatever Happened to the Starter Home? – The New York Times (nytimes.com) This article struck a chord with me because of my work on affordable housing – which is harder to find and has … Read more
03/12/2021 Lately I’ve been having a lot of discussions with colleagues about various pathways to net zero carbon as we undertake the arduous task of preparing the US’s nationally-determined contributions to greenhouse gas emission reductions under the Paris Agreement. One topic which keeps bubbling to the surface is the role of nuclear energy. There is … Read more
02/15/2021 I’m not going to write a long post today, because taking a dive into how our society can effectively respond to climate change would take a treatise or two. It would require a discussion of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — the agreement struck in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit — … Read more
02/07/2021 Our economic shift away from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources has been underway for some time. For me, one key tipping point was when Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s Mad Money, a stock market infotainment program, referred to the oil industry as uninvestable. He’s since backtracked a bit, making an exception for … Read more
It’s a snow day in Kansas City. The falling snow dampens urban noise. The silence is nice and it feel like the city stops to take a breath. Here’s a photo of my favorite oak tree. I like the way its branches fill the gray sky over my head. Some time ago a friend of … Read more